Runelords 25.0 - Lucretia's Plans
Now at the edge of the inner courtyard, the group divided into two parties: Khyrralien, Jack, Kevan and Ilsa were to run distraction in the yard, attacking any ogres they could find and stirring up trouble. Meanwhile, Virgil, Eamon, Aldern, Luna and Vale would cloak themselves in invisibility, and use Spider Climb magic to scale the keep wall and infiltrate the main building in order to assassinate the leaders. The distraction team set the barracks on fire, having known it was a flammable deathtrap from the moment it was built, before going on to fight the ogre who ran out. Meanwhile, the infiltration team scaled the wall easily with magic and Aldern's natural talent. They made their way into the central belltower, where they found two ogre corpses along with two human bodies, one of which had been strung up to replace the bell's clapper. By the beaten looks of the man, it seemed like he had indeed been used for that purpose. Feeling sorrow for the mutilated Black Arrow, they took him down respectfully. Making their way down the access ladder, they had to pass through the war room to reach the main hallway. Two ogres were sitting in this room, playing a macabre game involving the rate at which two decaying human corpses were dripping into buckets; the five managed to sneak by with the aid of Invisibility. Peering into the commander's room as they passed by, they saw a female ogre lounging on the broken bed, while an ogre man with an iron jaw stood breaking wine bottles as he pulled them out of a cabinet, smashing them and letting the liquid stain the walls and floor, making the room reek of filth and alcohol. Vale whispered that this was the chief's favoured wife and son. They ignored them for the time being. Finally, they stepped into the chapel at the end of the hall. The pews had been broken and shoved about to make a large open space in the middle. Corpses of Black Arrows, birds and beasts had been heaped up, and a gigantic ogre stood at its center, muttering vile sentiments to itself as it stitched bits and limbs of the corpses together. Vale said with a muted fury that this was the chieftain. In hushed tones, they discussed their strategy: the group quietly stepped in, took up positions around the ogre, and all struck at once. The chieftain was no weakling, though he managed to resist their initial assault. However, though he struck back viciously and screamed loud enough to shake the floor, the combined offence of the five assembled adventurers was too much for him, and he was felled. Quickly regrouping and turning to run, they nearly collided into two ogres who were running into the room from down the hall: the wife and son they had seen before. The iron jawed ogre lashed out with his weapon while the woman slung spells. As they fought them back, the two ogres from the war room joined the fight as well, blocking the hall from the other direction. Though there was a heated battle, the ogres were outmatched: the two guards and the iron jawed individual collapsed, and the woman tried to flee. As she did, she hit Virgil with a particularly devastating spell that left him blind. Vale was sent into a slumber, but Eamon managed to catch up with her as she tried to escape and slew her as well. Having now spent much of their healing and being unable to restore Virgil's sight, the group resolved to open the front door for their companions; hopefully, with their combined might, they would be able to stop the as-of-yet unseen red-haired woman who was the mastermind behind this before she could escape or recoup her losses that they had inflicted on her forces. Aldern, the only one who could still climb easily, had Invisibility cast upon him again before he snuck out to find the others. Whispering to them and informing them of the plan, they ran towards the door. They could hear ogres chasing after them, but they did not stop to engage them. Dashing through the open door, everyone mustered at the stairs into the basement, where they assumed the woman hid. They descended the stairs, and found that none of the ogres gave chase down the steps: they must have had orders to never go down, for them to pull back as they did. In the basement, they found the first room had been redecorated and designed into a lush boudoir, not unlike the one they had found at the top of the Shadow Clock. A red-haired woman lounged on a loveseat, watching as the first two people entered the room, leaving the others lined up along the hallway outside. She addressed them civilly, and Khyr was all too willing to butter her up, pushing himself into the room and returning her sweet talk. He took a seat nearby her, and the two gushed at each other, leaving the Arrows confused as to his priorities. At Khyr's insistence, everyone was led into the room, and the woman, who named herself as Lucretia, spoke to everyone in turn. She revealed a great deal of information while subtly trying to shift people's allegiances towards her and her master. She worked for the great Karzoug, who would be awakening soon in his grand city of Xin Shalast, and he required the aid of her and her sisters to regain his strength so that he might once again rule over the lands as he had in the past. They had been amassing great forces across the country, armies of people and monsters, to march for his majesty and herald his awakening, the ogres of which were but a small faction. Lucretia, though she showed no love lost for her sister in Medinipur, told them that the lamia had certainly not perished from their attack, and was still at work; she wasn't the only sister either, not by far. Another one of theirs, she said, was on the march with a force towards Sandpoint, set to arrive in twelve days. Lamar was among them, she mentioned off-handedly, and assured them that the town stood little chance. Lucretia's work here had indeed been interrupted, she admitted, though by no means ruined. She implored them to rethink their positions: they had no hope of stopping the great armies set to overrun Calele and beyond, and the mighty Karzoug would reward loyalty with riches beyond imagining. One by one, the adventurers and the Arrows refused her offer as it tempted their greed, some with more vehemence with others. She tut-tutted at Kevan, from whom she said she expected more: he had already betrayed the Arrows once before, meddling with the schedules to ensure that himself, Jack, Lamar, and so many others were out of Fort Rannick when the ogres attacked. The other three mercenaries turned on the man viciously at this revelation of his betrayal, and he pleaded for mercy. Lucretia laughed, scorned the others for their refusal to see sense, and mentioned that it was time for her to take her leave. Khyr, still buttering up to her and promising to work on the opinions of the others in her absence, asked where they might meet her again. She smiled and said that she would be at Jorgenfist, overseeing a new army. In response to an earlier question, she clarified that Koume Kamun would be there as well: that was a woman who knew where true power lied. With a smug smile and wave, she activated an item and disappeared, using Dimension Door to vanish. Knowing they had no hope of catching up to her and weighed down with so many problems aside, both new and old, the group let her leave. The Arrows turned on Kevan, and Virgil and Eamon in particular begged for mercy on his behalf: there were so many enemies on so many fronts that they faced, they needed all the help they could get. At the mention of Kevan's tattoo, which would feed into Lucretia's plans to harvest souls, Khyr offered to burn it off, with perhaps a hint of sadistic enjoyment. Kevan agreed frantically to everything they said, though he balked and pleaded for them to not burn his arm; they forced this on him, ignoring his cries. When things seemed to have settled and the topic of conversation began to move away from him, however, Kevan thought he saw an opportunity and tried to escape down a hidden passage, which connected to the tunnels that led them in to begin with. He was stopped, however, and dragged into one of the holding cells in the basement, where he was tossed unceremoniously to the shame of those who had vouched for him. Everyone was tired and panicked, disheartened by the news Lucretia had given them, but they had no choice but to press on. It was decided that they would finish off the ogres still in the fort, leaving Kevan in a cell and Virgil in another, seeing as how he was rather defenseless while drained of his arcana and lacking his vision. Without their leaders, the remaining ogres were disorganized and weak, and it was not difficult for the assembled warriors, however tired, to finish the job. When Fort Rannick was once again secure and in the hands of the Black Arrows, the adventurers left them to return to Turtleback Ferry to rest, hoping that Mayor Luthra would be able to remove the magically-induced blindness from Virgil. The mercenaries thanked them heartily for their help, and asked them to return in the morning to set new plans. Category:Rise of the Runelords